Fluxx’s Shawn Garrison sat down with Jenee Fortier, Grants Manager at Hello Alice, to learn more about how Fluxx is helping them with their organization.
Hello Alice is a free platform serving more than one million small business owners across the United States. Committed to equitable access to capital for the New Majority, including women, people of color, owners with disabilities, our LGBTQ+ community, and those who are military-affiliated, Hello Alice offers funding, education, tools, and curated opportunities. Working with enterprise business services, ecosystem partners, affiliates, and government agencies, Hello Alice provides its growing community with everything they need to grow their businesses.
The Need for a Purpose Built Grants Management Solution
Hello Alice is unique in that they don’t operate in the same way as a traditional foundation might. Rather than offering requests for applications once or twice in a year, their grants programs run year round. In fact, last year Hello Alice ran 24 unique programs throughout the year, working with enterprise partners such as Amazon, DoorDash, UBS and others to help bring each of their grantmaking plans to life, with Hello Alice acting as a grant administrator for those programs. With a network of over one million small businesses, Hello Alice can receive thousands of applications for each grant, which can be a massive undertaking to manage.
Originally, Hello Alice was planning to modify an existing loan processing solution to meet their grants management needs. This effort proved difficult, as the grantmaking process was more nuanced and complex and required a purpose built system to meet their needs. As a result they decided to seek out a best-in-class grants management solution.
Bulk Updates and Connected Data Creates Unmatched Efficiency
Since Hello Alice had such a large application review process, handling thousands of applications at a time, they needed a solution that would enable them to manage the process more effectively. Fluxx stood out for them for many reasons, but the Bulk Update feature was especially beneficial. In addition to the collaborative nature of the solution to help their team gain visibility into all aspects of the process, the ability to update and filter applications in bulk was a stand out feature. No other solution had this capability, and it enabled them to take upwards of 35,000 applications and filter it down to a handful, saving time and manual effort.
Another key benefit Fluxx has given Hello Alice is the Connected Data functionality. In the past, every grant program lived in its own separate data table, so it became a manual process to connect the different grant programs with the various businesses that may have been associated with it. With Fluxx Connected Data, all that information - and more - is at their fingertips. With a single click on the record, they can see past applications for that business, active applications, the status of each, how far they have gotten in the process, what has been awarded, any connected contacts, and anything related to that business regarding their grant information. This has helped Hello Alice in gaining more visibility into the data, and most importantly helps them to work with these small businesses to gain a fuller picture of what grant programs will work best for their needs. Connected data has been a game-changer in data-driven grantmaking, and Fluxx is the only grants management solution that is able to provide that for Hello Alice.
The Benefits of Collaboration and Transparency as Hello Alice Scales for Growth
Hello Alice plans to grow their programs, with a goal to double the amount of award money they can grant out in the coming year. In order to do this, they need a system that can not only handle the increased volume, but be able to report back on who applied, when, what the program looks like, and information on the individuals and their businesses. Fluxx gives them the ability to create these comprehensive reports with a click of a button and report to the rest of the Hello Alice team. This visibility helps the team make more informed decisions and see the level of impact they are making on small businesses with tier programs.
Fluxx has also created greater transparency in giving different areas of the business the ability to access important information. So not only can other departments, such as Customer Service, gain access to detailed information about the small businesses they are working with, but it also enables the owners and enterprise partners the ability to see how their programs are making an impact. Fluxx has given that direct access, eliminating any gaps in transfer or knowledge or communication. It has been a truly collaborative and data-driven experience for Hello Alice.
If you are interested in learning more about Hello Alice, you can visit their website at https://helloalice.com/
If you would like to learn more about Fluxx Grants management solution, visit us at https://www.fluxx.io/products/grantmaker-fluxx-grants-management-software
